The poet and orator, Eumenius in AD 297, in a description of travels by Constantius in and around

the north coast of Scotland wrote of:.

‘a nation, still savage and accustomed only to the hitherto semi-naked Picts and
Hibernians as their enemies, yielded to Roman arms and standards without difficulty.’

Claudius Claudianus writing in the early 5th century wrote of the people of Britain in the female as:

‘clothed in the skin of the Caledonian beast, her cheeks tattooed, a deep blue cloak
sweeping down to her feet.’

and in another reference:

‘the legion which had been left to guard far-distant Britain, which had kept the fierce
Scots in check and gazed at the strange shapes tattooed on the faces of the dying.’

The Venerable Bede (who lived from AD 673 to AD 735) tells us that :

‘This island at present, following the number of the books in which the Divine law was
written, contains five nations, the English, Britons, Scots, Picts, and Latins, each in its own
peculiar dialect cultivating the sublime study of Divine truth. The Latin tongue is, by the
study of the Scriptures, become common to all the rest. At first this island had no other
inhabitants but the Britons, from whom it derived its name, and who, coming over into
Britain, as is reported, from Armorica, possessed themselves of the southern parts
thereof. When they, beginning at the south, had made themselves masters of the
greatest part of the island, it happened, that the nation of the Picts, from Scythia, as is
reported, putting to sea, in a few long ships, were driven by the winds beyond the
shores of Britain, and arrived on the northern coast of Ireland, where, finding the nation
of the Scots, they begged to be allowed to settle among them, but could not succeed in
obtaining their request.’

The monk Gildas (thought to have lived between AD 500 and AD 570) wrote in his book The Ruin
and Conquest of Britain :

‘No sooner were they gone (the Romans), than the Picts and Scots, like worms which in
the heat of mid-day come forth from their holes, hastily land again from their canoes, in
which they had been carried beyond the Cichican valley, differing one from another in
manners, but inspired with the same avidity for blood, and all more eager to shroud
their villainous faces in bushy hair than to cover with decent clothing those parts of their
body which required it.’

Source : https://scotland.forestry.gov.uk/images/corporate/pdf/the-picts-a-learning-resource.pdf

Analyse the sources and decide whether these resources are reliable ( explain why) . What
do they tell us about the non Roman population of Scotland ?